Weekday musings on Practical Preparedness, Saving Money, Good Health, and Current Events.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Seeing is Believing?

Squares A & B are the same color!

"A picture is worth a thousand words"

My posts for the next few days will be short as I'm working overtime at the office.

We like to think that we can trust our eyes. At a trial the most trusted testimony comes from an "eyewitness". But in reality our eyes are easily fooled.

Here is a 30-second video from New Scientist magazine called the expanding arc illusion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h91Aj9AGuA
You brain may know the two arcs are the same size but they sure don't look it.

This article, http://blog.asmartbear.com/color-wheels.html, talks about why color wheels "are wrong." For example, did you know there is no color in the rainbow or light spectrum that is Magenta. It's an invention of eye with how the human brain combines colors.

Bottom Line

Presently my wife and I are having the interior of the house painted. Getting paint chips to color match is not simple. What looks perfect in the store, won't match when viewed outdoors or in our living room. Colors are influenced by the light we see them in.

Likewise all perception is contextual. What is loud to a parent is not loud to a teenager. There are "Super-tasters" with more taste buds on their tongue who experience food differently. There are super sniffers who work for perfume companies. We are each unique in how we perceive the world.